Thanks again to Kev for another great seminar and grading! For his fifth visit to Artemis BJJ, Kev shared some awesome mount and back techniques, along with a series of techniques. He and Can then promoted four people, including club stalwart Simon to a well deserved purple belt.

Our next grading will probably be next Summer again, although we have a number of people who are likely to get their blue belts after the Bristol Open in Feb 2020. The club is looking to send a large contingent as always, should be a fun day. 😀

How: To take part, simply turn up and roll. If you want to earn a fantastic custom Meerkatsu t-shirt (kindly provided by Tatami Fightwear), there’s only one way: fundraise!

Head here for the main fundraising page. To earn a t-shirt, set up your own fundraising page supporting Refugee Women of Bristol, here. (be sure to contact us with the link, so we know you’re fundraising). Note that our limited number of t-shirts will be awarded in order of total amount fundraised, until we run out.

Why: On the International Women’s Day 2020 weekend (7th-8th March), we will be supporting Refugee Women of Bristol. They support refugee and asylum seeking women, empowering them to build a new life. To learn more about their important work, have a read of their website, here.

Press: Take a look at the Artemis BJJ press page for upcoming articles and interviews about the GrappleThon (as well as previous events), here. For pictures and videos from both previous and current Artemis BJJ GrappleThons, go to our Instagram channel.

Simultaneously with the GrappleThon, we’ll also be running a Rolla(d20)thon, aiming for 24hrs of continuous D&D. So even if you’re not super keen on BJJ, you can still take part (and with WiFi, you can join one of our DnD sessions wherever you are in the world).

It has been a while since our last grading, so we’ve had a few interim promotions, but the big one was today. There are a number of people at the club who came in with a lot of existing training, who have therefore been overdue for their belts ever since they joined. Thanks to the continuing support of Kev Capel, that’s now been resolved, meaning we have four new purple belts.

In the run-up to our GrappleThon in support of Womankind Bristol next month, Artemis BJJ instructor Tracey headed down to their offices (a short walk from MYGYM) to talk to them about their wonderful charity work.

Before I talk about the services they offer, I want to say that Womankind Bristol are thrilled that we are fundraising for them. The staff were lovely and very interested in what a grapplethon was! Their mission is to help women to improve their mental health and well-being so they can experience a better quality of life. They offer a number of services:

• Helpline

• Group therapy

• Individual counselling

• Specialist counselling service for women who have suffered sexual violence

• Safer women’s project – supports women who have been trafficked or refugees

• Service for deaf and hard of hearing women

• Befriending service for women who are isolated and struggle to leave their home

• Transgender support group – the only one in the South West

Womankind Bristol are currently setting up an instant messaging service. They hope to launch the service in about 6 months time and part of the money raised in the grapplethon will go towards this project. This service will be geared towards young women and those who are deaf and hard of hearing.

On a personal note, I was overwhelmed at the variety of issues that Womankind Bristol deal with, including: anxiety and depression, eating problems, physical disabilities and suicidal thoughts. They strive to help those who struggle and I am thrilled that we can raise money to enable them to carry on doing this.

How: To take part, simply turn up and roll. If you want to earn a fantastic custom Meerkatsu t-shirt (kindly provided by Tatami Fightwear), there’s only one way: fundraise! Head here for the main fundraising page.

To earn a t-shirt, set up your own fundraising page supporting Womankind Bristol Women’s Therapy Centre, here. (be sure to contact us with the link, so we know you’re fundraising). Note that our limited number of t-shirts will be awarded in order of total amount fundraised, until we run out.

Why: On the International Women’s Day 2019 weekend (9th-10th March), we will be supporting the Womankind Bristol Women’s Therapy Centre, a charity that provides counselling for women to improve their mental health and well-being, in order to experience a better quality of life. To learn more about their important work, have a read of their website, here.

Press: Take a look at the Artemis BJJ press page for upcoming articles and interviews about the GrappleThon (as well as previous events), here. For pictures and videos from both previous and current Artemis BJJ GrappleThons, go to our Instagram channel.

Simultaneously with the GrappleThon, we’ll also be running a Rolla(d20)thon, aiming for 24hrs of continuous D&D. So even if you’re not super keen on BJJ, you can still take part (and with WiFi, you can join one of our DnD sessions wherever you are in the world).

Hooray, it’s almost Christmas! Lots of presents, mince pies and excellent cheesy music. You’ll still be able to get in some BJJ because our Clifton venue will be open, but MYGYM will be closed for the period. So, the normal schedule will be altered over xmas.

🎅🎄☃XMAS SCHEDULE 2018☃🎄🎅

We’re running as normal until Sunday 23rd December, then based on MYGYM holiday opening hours, this will be the schedule:

The Artemis BJJ kids class has been running now for over 2 years. The aim has always been to create a friendly atmosphere for the children and to teach them Brazilian jiu jitsu in a fun way. In December 2017, we were delighted to promote 2 of the kids and they joined in with the club’s GrappleThon this year. More recently, we have had several new kids join and Artemis BJJ blue belt Erick helps out when either of the instructors are away.

We’ve had a brilliant time teaching the kids class so far. It’s such a fun half hour and we learn a lot too!

Coinciding with our first ever Artemis BJJ Camp, we had a small grading on the Sunday too. Three well deserved blue belts were handed out by Kev and Can, meaning that Jade, Nick and Paulina joined the ranks of Artemis BJJ blues. Well done to all of them!

As we have now gotten through the big backlog of promotions, we’ll be switching to less frequent gradings. Kev will therefore next be along in 2019, though Can will also be promoting a few people to blue belt in the interim (especially as a couple of people who would have been promoted at the weekend weren’t able to make it). Thanks again to Kev. 😀

The BJJ Globetrotter Camps are amazing, which is why Can regularly attends several every year. Unfortunately, not everybody has the time to take a whole week off work to enjoy a spot of pyjama wrestling. Therefore, Artemis BJJ hosted a mini BJJ training camp right here in Bristol to bring a taste of that experience closer to home. Our first attempt, mostly in an effort to test to see if this BJJ training camp idea can work, was held over the 25th-26th August at our Clifton location, The Exercise Club on 213 Whiteladies Road, along with a few sessions at MYGYM (directions are over on our Locations page). Everybody is always welcome at Artemis BJJ, wherever you train.

There was training on both Saturday and Sunday from 15:00 through to 19:00. We had six black belts teaching us, including Seymour Yang (who runs the world famous Meerkatsu brand), world champions Chelsea Bainbridge-Donner and Tom Barlow, pioneering female grappler Gret Zoeller, plus Neil Owen (one of the most experienced black belts in the UK) and his student James Boyle (who runs a successful BJJ academy in Chesterfield). The schedule was as follows:

We had an excellent turnout, with around 30 grapplers sharing the mats over the Bank Holiday weekend (you can check out Meerkatsu’s write up over on his website). Putting open mat inbetween each class worked well, though perhaps a longer break for lunch would be worth trying next time. There is scope to expand on the Sunday, if we hold it in the same venue, so that could mean more classes and more open mat. There is also the option of upgrading in terms of space, to the larger venue at MYGYM, though that would mean a higher ticket price. We’ll be considering the options over the next few months.